


Mute(tation)

by Raepocalypse



Series: There's More Out There [4]
Category: Block B
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Multi, bc of tattoos, but theres not like graphic needle stuff or anything? idk jsut be warned about the tattoos ok, mentions of needles, rated for language and mentions of pain and sexy stuff?, they don't do anything saucy tho, this is really really heavy on tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 13:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14379537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raepocalypse/pseuds/Raepocalypse
Summary: Taeil has never felt things quite like others feel them, and it's made things hard before. He's taken precautions now, and he hopes it will make it easier, but on the way he finds something beautiful.





	Mute(tation)

**Author's Note:**

> This is really just me waxing poetic about tattoos for like the dead middle part. I hope no one gets set of by all the mentions of tattoo needles? Idk I just really think tattoos are lovely, and I think Taeil would think so too. 
> 
> Or
> 
> The group begins to come together, little by little. Piece by piece.

Tattoos have been frowned upon for a long time, for obvious reasons. Not because of the marks they left on your body, although that didn’t help, but because of the shared link one always had with their soulmate. 

Taeil quickly found that he didn’t care about that. He found out after the first time someone tricked him. Soulmates were supposed to be impossible to fake. Soulmates were supposed to be absolute. For Taeil, though, they were distant and difficult at first. There was something off, something… something  _ wrong _ with him. He didn’t feel anything at all, nothing, for so long that he didn’t think he was going to have one at all. 

It wasn’t his first boyfriend, who had been sweet but bad at kissing or his second, who had slung an arm around his shoulders and held him a little too close all the time. It was the third, who had grabbed at him too much and kissed him sweetly and whispered sweet nothings in his ear. 

He was eighteen and stupid and hadn’t felt anything yet. His mother told him he was a late bloomer, but when his boyfriend (he still refuses to think his name, he refuses to give him the space in his mind, although sometimes he still thinks about it) said softly, “I think you’re my soulmate,” he had believed him. 

Taeil didn’t feel like it was right. There was something unsettling about accepting the wrong soulmate, he later learned. Like driving toward a car moving at the same speed backwards. Like standing high in the air on glass. Like an optical illusion for your heart. Still, he wanted and wanted and He had been nice, most of the time, and He had wanted him back and that’s all Taeil wanted now. 

It was relatively short lived. Taeil “bloomed” a few months into the relationship. He felt a brush of lips on his, a hand sliding down his back. He’d been confused, and then  _ furious _ . The fight was short and quick. They crashed together the way currents do to create a tornado and left Taeil’s apartment a disaster behind. 

Furious and hurt, Taeil had done the only thing he could think to ensure he would never make the mistake again. He got a tattoo. 

Maybe it was a little bit punishment for his stupidity, for allowing himself to be fooled, but he didn’t think of it like that. It was beautiful, and made him proud. It felt like the pain he’d gone through the past few months, the past few hours, was worth it now. Something beautiful was with him. 

The problem, though, with tattoos, is that once you get one, you get  _ more _ . Or at least Taeil did. He liked it. He liked the buzz of the needle, he liked the sting that made him  _ feel _ something too deeply to ignore. He liked the way it stayed with him, he liked the way it looked when it healed. He liked the permanence of it. A tattoo wouldn’t leave. A tattoo couldn’t be false. It was there and it was real and it was always going to be. Sometimes, he could imagine he felt cool cloth soothing the ache, that someone was brushing their lips over the raw wound, but he didn’t believe it. Not really. 

The first time he felt the sting come back at him, his most recent tattoo (the fourth one, now crawling up his arms and he was absolutely not finished) had only just healed. He had been getting ready to make another appointment, ready to make a new mark, to fill his skin with more art, with more ink. The pain of it hit him abruptly and knocked the breath out of him. 

He gasped sharply, jerked away from the tank where he was feeding his fish and pressing a hand to his chest, rubbing over the phantom pain. He ran to the bathroom, yanked his shirt off and stared at the blank canvas of skin. He knew the pain of a tattoo, knew exactly what was happening, knew that there was no way this wasn’t  _ real _ and  _ true _ and tears stung his eyes behind his glasses. 

Nothing had ever felt like this. He had the barely there brushes of kisses, or of a touch, but it was like a petals falling on him, insubstantial to the point of almost not mattering at all. Maybe that was why He had been able to convince him of something that wasn’t true. Maybe something was actually wrong with him, that he couldn’t feel the pleasure the way other people did. This, though, was sharp enough to come through, was a bite into his skin that demanded attention. It wasn’t unbearable, it wasn’t half as much as his own tattoos, but god, it was  _ there _ . 

From then on, he didn’t feel any of the hesitation he did before about his tattoos. His soulmate had one, so it couldn’t be that they hated it, could it? It was fine. This was fine. 

He didn’t shy away from his appointments. He didn’t shy away from getting them where no one could even see. His ribs were still stinging from the last one and he felt a little bad going in to get his done, but the appointment was made. 

Was his soulmate getting tattoos because of him, or because they wanted them? Taeil hoped, always hoped, that the reason wasn’t him. He hoped they were their own person, that they knew how beautiful it was, how much it meant. He hoped that their tattoos meant as much to them as his own did to him. 

His collar. His back. His arms are covered. 

Now, Taeil is sitting in the waiting room of the shop he likes the most, the one that had asked him only one if he had already cleared it with his soulmate, the one that hadn’t pushed when he stared them down. There’s alredy a couple in the waiting room with him, or what he assumes is a couple. They aren’t all over one another, but soulmate pairs go to tattoo shops often together. Taeil hears it makes the phantom pain less surreal to know what’s happening, although it doesn’t bother him that much. He’s never feel it enough to be bothered. 

“I’m just  _ saying _ , maybe you should just reconsider,” the shorter one is saying, looking almost desperate.

“I made a downpayment, Kyung,” the other sighs, giving him a look and then shooting a tight smile at Taeil. “Can you shut up for a minute, you’re being weird.” He gives him a light shove and cuts another look at Taeil, trying to make him realize. The man, Kyung, looks at him and is about to argue again before he’s cut off. 

“It’s fine,” Taeil interrupts, waving the concern away with a small smile. “I get it.” He sort of does, but he sort of doesn’t. 

“It hurts,” Kyung pouts, flopping back into the seat heavily, which leads Jiho to a sigh. “And now I have to deal with  _ both _ of you doing it. Like all the time. They’re worse than you are.”

Taeil’s brow furrows. He’s not trying to listen in, but he feels like he’s already involved and that’s… a curious thing to say. “Both?” he asks, before he can stop himself. 

“We have more than one soulmate,” the taller man explains, sounding exasperatedly patient. “They get a lot of tattoos too.”

“More than you,” Kyung grumbles. “What about you? Did yours not come?” 

Taeil is still thinking about the fact that they have more than one soulmate, reeling a little, because one person seems like so many to share with already, and they’re both sharing with two. He blinks once, twice, and then looks down at his phone again, pointedly not answering. They don’t need to know his business. It’s his. 

There’s the sound of a hissed conversation, then some gentle whacks as the two of them argue. Taeil thinks, in the back of his mind, that it’s odd that it feels so close to him, like he’s involved in this. 

“No, they didn’t,” he finally answers, not looking up from his phone. Instantly, they both settle down a little and he can feel them both staring at him. 

“Where are you getting yours?” the taller man asks after a moment, a clear attempt to change to subject, to make nice after such an awkward thing to say. 

He looks up briefly to find them both watching him, softer than he thought they would be. They’re leaning together. They finally look like a couple, except that Kyung’s not holding his boyfriend’s hand so much as holding it down so it can’t hit him again. 

“My hands.”

His artist pokes their head out, waves him back, and he smiles to the two on the other sofa as he goes to meet with him. 

It’s much the same as it always is. There’s a thrill in his chest, in his throat, as he signs the waivers, taps past the allergy information and sicknesses, and then they’re putting transfers on his skin. The artist has on gloves. The ink is laid out. 

The familiar buzz of the needle relaxes part of Taeil, but it makes his heart beat a little faster, makes him sit up and pay attention, makes him  _ feel _ something when it presses to the careful lines on his fingers. 

They’re on the third finger when there’s a sound from outside. The artist lifts his gun carefully and looks up just in time for the couple from the waiting area to burst in. 

“You,” Kyung says, looking straight at him. 

Taeil looks at the artist, back at the pair in the door. “Me…?” he asks carefully, raising his brows. 

They stare at each other for a few long moments before the blonde with the cap shifts impatiently and blurts out, “We’re your soulmates.”

For a few moments, Taeil just watches them and then his brows raise slowly. He exchanges a look with the artist, who looks almost as taken aback as he does. He raises his hands in surrender, although Taeil isn’t sure what he’s surrendering to. 

“Can I finish my tattoo?” he asks, unsure what he’s supposed to do now. He doesn’t… quite believe them. He has no real reason to, he supposes, although there’s a heaviness in his chest that makes him want to. 

They exchange a look and then Kyung steps forward with a frown. “That’s it? Just… finish the tattoo?”

He frowns, looking up at them and then turning back to the artist, laying his hands out again with splayed fingers. “Where are you getting your tattoo?” he asks, although he doesn’t look at them. He knows the question sounds like  _ prove it _ . There’s nothing he can do about that. 

Eventually, he replies, voice soft and unsure, “My arm. I’m- My name is Woo Jiho. This is Park Kyung. Will you wait for us? Before you go?”

Taeil keeps his eyes turned downward, waiting for the artist to start up again. Eventually, he nods, mumbles a soft, “Yeah.” He hears them be still for a long time and eventually adds, “I’m Taeil. Lee Taeil.” 

They leave. The sting of the tattoo doesn’t wipe away the rest of the things he feels this time, though. A few minutes pass and he can feel needles in his chest, stinging his skin like a persistent bee. He closes his eyes, squeezes them shut tight. He’s been fooled once before, but not like this. This is something else. This is real and right and just on the other side of the door. He can feel it. 

The artist doesn’t say a word as he does the tattoo, which is odd. They usually speak a little, have a short conversation as he works. This time, they only speak if Taeil needs to move, or if he has to check on him to see if he’s okay. 

At the end, he takes a photo. Taeil’s hands are wrapped in plastic to keep it covered, protecting the fresh ink from anything that might hurt it. 

“Can I… say something?” he asks as Taeil stands to leave. He’s got the rest of the money in his hands, thumbs fiddling with it slightly. He pauses, which seems to be enough to have him going ahead and saying it. “Just… I know that you got hurt before, Taeil-ssi, but I think you’re setting yourself up for more hurt if you just… cut yourself off.”

“I’m not cutting myself off,” Taeil shoots back.

They watch each other for a moment before the artist sighs again, shrugging lightly. “Sure. Alright. Just… Keep it in mind, okay? Maybe they’re wrong. Maybe you’re not connected. But it’s a pretty big coincidence that you’ve got that pain in your chest now, huh?”

Taeil frowns at him and turns, leaves the little room and seeks out the sound of another buzzing needle. He finds Jiho sitting in the chair, shirt off and a woman leaning over him to etch black markings into his skin. Kyung is on the other side, holding his hand carefully. He watches as he leans down, presses a kiss to the back of Jiho’s hand just firmly enough that he feels it. 

He takes in a sharp breath, which draws both of their attention. Matching cautious smiles slip over their faces. Jiho reaches out. “Can I see?”

Taeil hesitates, but creeps closer. Kyung takes one hand, gives it to Jiho, then takes the other and just like that, he’s tethered to them. (He will look back later and think that this was the moment when he was caught like a fish on a line. He’s wrong. It was much earlier, the moment he heard them speak.)

“I can’t wait to see the rest of them,” Kyung says, running his thumb along the outside of his hand, mindful of the way his skin aches. He must know, Taeil thinks, that it hurts to the touch. That pressure right on it will hurt right now. He must know, because he lifts the hand to his lips, but presses a firm kiss to the back of his own hand. Taeil can feel the pressure on his skin, barely there under the ache of the tattoo and it’s… surreal. Brings a furrow to his brow and makes his chest ache in a way that has nothing to do with tattoos. 

Jiho strokes his thumb over the unbranded skin as well, thoughtful. “They’re beautiful,” he says softly, then looks up at him and smiles. It makes Taeil feel like his heart has stopped for a moment and it’s so alarming he pulls both hands away, moving to the chair across the room to sit and fiddle with the edges of the plastic wrap. 

Silence again, filled with the buzz of a tattoo gun, insistent and pausing only when the artist has to dip it back in the ink. “You… don’t like us?” Kyung guesses. 

Taeil looks up sharply, then back down. “I don’t know you,” he mumbles.

“That’s okay,” Jiho says, although it doesn’t sound okay. “We can get to know each other. We have time.”

“I knew him before we even knew soulmate stuff,” Kyung continues, a little more hopeful now. “Do you want to go out somewhere after this? Coffee?”

He pauses, unsure. In the back of his mind, he’s thinking about Him, but this is absolutely not the same. He knows it’s not, he can feel the difference in his chest. Not just in the sting of the needle, but in the way their presence makes him feel… settled. Like he’s a water bottle someone has been shaking for twenty plus years and they’ve only just set it down for a minute. 

He takes a deep breath, takes another, looking between the both of them. “Coffee,” he says finally, giving a short nod. 

Kyung smiles, and Taeil thinks it might be the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, until Jiho smiles too, and he quickly decides that the pair of them smiling at him, together, is going to make his heart stop somehow. 

Taeil thinks that’s it, thinks that they’ll probably be able to sit quietly until Jiho’s tattoo is done, and he takes out his phone. He’s wrong, though, of course, because Kyung immediately starts asking him questions and Jiho doesn’t hesitate to join him, even as the tattoo artist admonishes him to be still. 

How old is he? Twenty three. Where does he work? An aquarium. How many tattoos does he plan on getting? As many as he can. (This makes Kyung scrunch his nose in distaste and Jiho laughs hard enough that the artist slaps him with an open palm on his flat stomach to get him to be still again.) Has he met any of their other soulmates?

“Other what?” he asked, frowning, his brow furrowing down. 

“Other soulmates,” Kyung says easily, as though it’s the most natural thing in the world. 

Jiho doesn’t miss a beat as he adds, “Yeah, we’ve got at least two more, if you haven’t met someone else.”

Taeil’s confusion must show on his face, because they share a look and Kyung moves to sit beside him, releasing Jiho’s hand finally. “You don’t feel it? When they… you know?” His voice lowers, brows drawn down in concern. “When they fuck? It’s like you can feel it twice over.”

He blinks, and the words make him flush and he thinks back to how it’s been before, to what he’s felt, and he supposes that makes sense. “I don’t... “ He clears his throat, glancing at the woman almost finishing etching designs into Jiho’s skin. “I don’t think I’m comfortable talking about that here?”

Kyung nods like he understands, but he brings up a hand to rest on Taeil’s back, smoothing down between his shoulder blades and Taeil knows for sure that this must be what it’s like for your soulmate to touch you. He can still feel the buzz of Jiho’s tattoo under his skin, but it’s less insistent. Kyung’s touch grounds him to his own body, puts him back in it and he wonders, not for the first time, if it’s like this for other people. 

This time, they do stay quiet, but Kyung keeps his hand on Taeil’s back and Taeil doesn’t push it away. His warm palm rubs in slow circles, fingers moving up once in a while to scratch at the back of his hair and it makes his lids flutter gently. He hasn’t really… been with someone, with anyone, in so long that just that little bit of physical affection makes him want to melt. 

When Jiho is done, he gingerly puts his button up back on over the plastic wrap and Kyung dutifully coos over how nice it looks, despite the fact that he doesn’t sound like he means it at all. “Coffee!” he practically chirps, taking Taeil’s hand and leading him to the door. Again, Taeil thinks that, yes, they  _ must _ be soulmates, because he just got that hand tattooed and Kyung grabbed it so quickly, so carefully, without brushing the raw skin in the least. 

“I know a good place,” Jiho says, taking up on his other side and he slings an arm around Taeil’s shoulders, pulling him in close and then grinning. “You’re both so short,” he laughs. 

Kyung scowls at him, shooting him a death glare and then reaching around Taeil to pinch his side hard enough that Taeil feels it. They start to bicker on either side of him, leading him out of the tattoo shop and down the street. 

Taeil takes the moment to feel a little… exhilarated. He felt that. He  _ felt _ it, and he knows he’s felt things before, but it’s always been more muted than people made it seem like it should be, and maybe something is wrong with him, but he’s never had to stop what he was doing while someone else came, he never had to pause a conversation because he could feel lips on him that weren’t there. He felt it, but not firmly. Now, though, seeing it right there, he can see it, he can feel it, he  _ knows _ what this is. 

A smile steals over his face, drawing the attention of the men on either side of him. He doesn’t look up at them to see what their faces look like, angling his eyes downward until he feels Kyung’s breath on his cheek. He laughs, turning away only to find that Jiho’s face is just as close on the other side. 

“Stop it,” he laughs, planting a hand on Jiho’s face and shoving him away. Kyung darts in quickly and presses a kiss to his cheek. When he turns to him, another kiss lands on the other cheek. He feels the pressure of both kisses against his own lips, sending a tingle down his spine. “We’re supposed to be going to coffee,” he tries to whine, but the smile on his face betrays the way his heart is starting to get away from him, starting to beat too hard and too fast. 

“We  _ are _ going to coffee,” Kyung replies as Jiho pulls away enough to pull open the door to a Starbucks. 

“We’re at coffee,” Jiho adds, smiling brightly and following them in. 

Taeil finds that it’s all… it’s all pretty nice, really. Jiho and Kyung overpower him into paying for his coffee, then fight about who’s going to pay for all three. (Kyung plays both sides of the argument and ends up paying and looking smug about it anyway. Taeil is not sure if that was the outcome he wanted or not and it all seemed like some oddly practiced manipulation on his part.) They get their coffee and have a seat in a trio of plush chairs that Jiho rearranges without asking if he’s allowed to do that. 

Once they’re there, though, sitting down, the whole thing feels… softer. It feels kinder. It feels friendly and intimate all at once. They’re by a window and the light is streaming in and they can see and hear all of the other people around them, but their chairs are close together and cutting them off from the rest of the shop. Jiho’s voice is low and soft and they both keep their eyes on Taeil like they can’t pull them away. Kyung reaches across with his free hand and squeezes Jiho’s hand, rubbing soothing circles into the place where Taeil’s own is sore and he can feel it and it eases a little of the ache, like that touch is taking over what he feels himself. 

“So you really didn’t know about the others?” Kyung asks finally, after Jiho comes back with a second cup of coffee. 

Taeil shrugs, taking the cup and holding it in both hands, freshly inked fingers curved around te warmth of the mug. “No? I don’t... “ He sighs, stares at the dark, steaming liquid and tries to figure out how to explain this. 

“You don’t… feel it?” Jiho guesses, casting a look at Kyung. “Is it possible to…?”

Kyung shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of having more than two, but here we are.”

Taeil shakes his head, puts his cup down, picks it back up, puts it down and fiddles with a stray string on his sweater. “I do, but it’s not like… Okay, so when I got my tattoo it was like you were getting one too right? It felt the same as it did when you got yours?”

Kyung nods, which is unhelpful, but then Jiho nods too, slowly, like he’s trying to understand before he’s given the explanation. 

“And when… When you  _ finish _ , it’s the same feeling as when one of your soulmates does, right?”

They both nod again, Kyung with a furrow forming between his brows and Jiho with his head canting slowly to the side. Curious, like a puppy. Neither of them seemed to be phased by the talk of sex. In public. At least they’re pretty cut off from everyone else. 

“I… don’t. I don’t feel it the same way.” He reaches across for Kyung’s hand, taking it in his own and drawing a letter on the back of his hand. “If you feel it like this,” he draws the letter again, softer, just a brush of his fingers. “I feel it like this. It’s hard to tell what all I’m feeling when it’s so soft. I don’t know what’s… exactly wrong with me, but I just don’t feel it the same as everyone else. I never really thought the tattoos were such a big deal before, but I guess you guys can feel them a lot more than me, huh?”

Jiho nods again, reaching out for his other hand, looking like he’s feeling left out with the way Kyung has his attention. Taeil has to abandon his coffee to share, but he finds he doesn’t mind. Not with the way Jiho seems to relax a little when their hands touch. They’re both careful, so careful, not to brush the sensitive skin. 

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you,” Kyung says firmly, reaching into his pocket and taking his phone out with one hand. He starts tapping away, ignoring them now as though whatever he’s decided to do suddenly is more important than anything they could say. 

Jiho snorts, shaking his head and giving Taeil’s hand a squeeze. “Me neither. I think you’re exactly what we need. You’re amazing.”

“You just met me,” Taeil sighs, giving him a look over his glasses. Cheesy. 

Jiho leans closer, grinning at him. “So? Still true.”

Taeil turns away, feeling his cheeks flush as Jiho moves into his space. “Are you always this forward? I just met you today.”

“But you’re my soulmate.” He doesn’t seem put out, but he does move back a little, giving Taeil room to breathe, space to let his heart beat itself into a slower cadence. 

He purses his lips, thoughtful. “I would still like to… take it kind of slow? Is that okay?”

Jiho hums, as though he’s giving this real thought. “How slow?”

He rolls his eyes, taking his hands back to curl around his cup again and take another sip. The coffee is cooler now, more comfortable. “I don’t know. Slower. Dates. I jumped into something once because he said he was my soulmate and it was wrong. I don’t want to do that again.”

Kyung looks up sharply from his phone. “Do you think we’re not your soulmates?” he asks, concern tinting the edges of his voice with worry. Not anger. Not something that implies that he thinks Taeil is accusing them of lying. Something more melancholy, that he’s afraid Taeil thinks they’re wrong, like he’s ready to dispel whatever makes him think that way. 

Thinking, Taeil chews on his lip and drums his fingers on the ceramic. “I do. It feels… right. Like it didn’t before. But I’d still prefer not to just… jump into things.”

To his relief, both of them relax. Jiho smiles, looking soft and pleased. “I’m okay with slow.”

“I found some articles on muted feelings,” Kyung says, with no preamble. He’s scrolling so fast Taeil doesn’t know how he can be reading, but maybe he’s just looking for keywords. “It looks like it’s not super uncommon when there are multiples for one or more parties to have stunted effects.” He taps at the phone again, scrolling again, too fast again. “Theories say that it mostly has to do with the split, obviously, but mostly it’s an anomaly within the anomaly.” He taps his phone off and tucks it away. “Like a conditional mutation. I mean, it would make more sense for all of us to be a little muted, I guess, but Jiho and I aren’t, and it makes it really hard to concentrate sometimes. I would guess that your sensation is muted kind of reflexively, maybe because there’s too many of us.”

Taeil stares at him for a few moments, for what’s probably too long, and for more reasons than he can immediately place. His heart feels like it’s in his throat, lips open a little in a way that’s telling of how startled he is. Not only did Kyung instantly research it, but he sounded…  _ very _ smart. Like he just speed-read however many articles on something so specific and comprehended it in less than five minutes. And then… he just  _ accepted  _ it. Like it was so big deal. Like Taeil feeling like something was wrong with him his whole life was nothing. Like there has never been anything wrong with Taeil. 

He’s silent for so long that the pair share a look and then reach out again. “Taeil?” Kyung asks, brow furrowing again. “Sorry was that… too much? I just- sometimes I get-”

“No,” he says quickly, shaking his head. “No, it wasn’t too much, I just… I guess I just didn’t realize that my soulmate would be… smart. Or… accepting. I guess.”

Jiho and Kyung give each other another look and Taeil is starting to realize that maybe those looks convey a lot more than he realizes. Maybe those looks are meaningful and they communicate that way often. Maybe they just know each other so well they don’t always need to talk. Is that a soulmate thing or is that a Jiho and Kyung thing? He doesn’t know. 

“Well,” Kyung says slowly. “I guess it’s supposed to be that easy, right? Like… we’re supposed to fit together. Because we’re connected. Besides, what is there to accept? You’re just you. There’s nothing wrong with the way you are.”

This time, Taeil presses his lips together and looks down, his cheeks flushing, his brow pulling down into a flustered furrow. He hides the expression behind his cup by taking a drink. “Thank you,” he mumbles, trying to will his heart to calm down. He barely said anything, why is he so flustered?

“You’re cute when you blush,” Jiho says quietly, smiling at him when he looks up. They’re both smiling, like they know exactly what they’re doing to him, and he’s torn between a foreign desire to reach over and maybe press a kiss to both their cheeks and a slightly more familiar desire to push them off their chairs for teasing him. 

“Shut up,” he shoots instead, doing neither of those things. “I should, um. I should go, probably. I have some other things to do today. I didn’t really… plan in the schedule to have time to meet my soulmates.”

“We’ll see you again, though, right?” Jiho asks, face instantly falling into concern. 

He nods, pulling his phone out and opening the contacts, sliding it across so they can put their numbers in themselves. “Give me your numbers. I’ll call you.”

Kyung snatches the phone up and is already tapping away. He snaps a selfie with a wink and a smile and a little heart in the frame before handing it to Jiho. 

“Don’t forget about us,” Kyung tells him firmly. “You may be muted, but we  _ will _ find a way to make your life hell if you forget about us.”

He takes the phone back, rolling his eyes as he stands. “I’m sure you will.” It takes him a moment to maneuver out of their little corner of clustered chairs, but when he does he pauses, a hand on the back of each chair. Quickly, he leans down and presses a kiss to first Kyung’s cheek, then Jiho’s. He barely feels the pressure of it on his own cheeks, one on each side, but it makes something in his chest feel settled and warm, makes him feel like he’s at home in this cafe he’s never been to, with these people he’s just met. 

He turns, heads for the door before they can pull him into more conversation or try to kiss him back. When he gets outside, he pauses at the corner to look at the two new contacts. 

_ Better Soulmate AKA Kyung _ is there, with five heart emojis at the end and a grinning Kyung in the picture. Right beside it is  _ BEST Soulmate AKA Jiho AKA Zico  _ with even more heart emojis and a little microphone at the end. His picture looks even softer, with a peace sign and a close-lipped smile. He grins at the phone, creates a group chat, and sends a message, just one, with only a fish emoji in it. He ignores the next ten minutes of their pair of them trying to get a selca out of him. They can get one next time. It’ll give them something to look forward to.

**Author's Note:**

> Shout at me on twitter!!
> 
> @6uglyguysandjae


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